1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to games and in particular to an amusing game appealable to those interested in astrology and in its historical origins.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since ancient Babylonian times, astrologers have assumed that the relative positions of the sun, moon, planets, stars and other heavenly bodies influence human affairs. The horoscope at the time of a person's birth, or the position of the planets in relation to the zodiac at that moment, has long been regarded as determining one's destiny. The zodiac, an imaginary band of the sky extending eight degrees on each side of the ecliptic, within which the moon and principal planets remain, represents the sun's apparent annual path through the fixed stars. The zodiac is traditionally divided into twelve equal parts, or signs, each named after a different constellation, i.e., Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. To erect a horoscope for a specific date and moment of time and for a given geographical coordinate, modern-day astrologers rely on astronomical fasts which are readily available from various tables such as an ephemeris which comprises annual tables of planetary motions, a time change table, a latitude/longitude table, and a Table of Houses.
The ancient Babylonian originators of the concept of the zodiac and their Egyptian successors had to cast horoscopes from a much less detailed knowledge of the universe. Only the four planets closest to the earth, i.e., Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, were known to these people. Although their observations of the cyclic nature of the zodiac, of the solstices and of the equinoxes as well as of the opposing positions of the solstices and of the equinoxes in the solar year had led them to the concept of an equator, there is no solid evidence that they knew about the Earth's rotation or ecliptic. Indeed, they thought that the heavens, the observed celestial sphere, passed over the surface of the Earth, with the sun moving across this sphere along a path half-way between the extremes of the summer and winter solstices. The sun for them was akin to a traveller who began his journey in any direction from some reference point on Earth and who, if he continued to travel in a straight line, would eventually reach a point exactly opposite that reference point, to which he would eventually return if he were then to travel in any direction and in a straight line from that opposite point.
Like their modern day counterparts, the early practitioners of astrology thought that each of the four then known planets in some way reflected the qualities of the zodiac sign with which it was connected, with the influence of a planet depending upon its house or apparent location relative to the Earth's horizon. The Egyptians connected Mercury, which they associated with summer, with the three zodiac signs appearing between June 21st and Sept. 22nd; Jupiter, which they associated with autumn, with the three signs between Sept. 23rd and Dec. 20th; Mars, which they associated with winter, with the three signs between Dec. 21st and Mar. 20th; and Venus, which they associated with spring, with the signs between Mar. 21st and June 20th. Attaching great significance to the site occupied by the Great Sphinx of Egypt, they viewed the heavens as being divided into four equal parts which intersected above it and held it to be closely guarded by Mercury in summer, Jupiter in autumn, Mars in winter, and Venus in spring.
The site of the Sphinx is thought to have been suggested by the Babylonians because of its relationship to a cyclic pattern which was formerly followed by Sirius, the Dog Star, and which coincided with the summer and winter solstices, thereby marking the seasons in ancient Egyptian times. In fact, the north-south position of the Sphinx was selected so that the first appearance of Sirius on the eastern horizon immediately before sunrise every year, a phenomenon signalling the beginning of the longest day of the Egyptian solar year, occurred east of the Sphinx. As the solar year progressed, Sirius grew in brightness and climbed higher into the night sky until the time of the winter solstice at which point Sirius began to grow dimmer until it completely disappeared in the night of Jan. 20 and morning of Jan. 21. Not only did the Egyptians declare everything on the left side of the Sphinx, beginning at the left mid-section thereof, to be in the north and everything on the right side of the Sphinx, beginning at the right mid-section thereof, to be in the south, they also used the Sphinx to mark the ancient Egyptian prime meridian. Everything in front of the Sphinx, including the head, was considered to be in the east and everything behind, including the body, to be in the west.
Unlike the present day system in which the sky zodiac is considered to begin with Aries and end with Pisces, the sky zodiac signs in ancient Egypt were assumed to begin with Virgo and end with Leo. Significantly, the head of the Sphinx represents the zodiac sign Virgo and its body the zodiac sign Leo, with the representation of Virgo being situated east of that of Leo. Using the Sphinx both as the physical representation of their god of the horizon, Horus, and as a physical marker to delineate the houses or zodiac boundaries on Earth, the Egyptians also declared that on Earth the zodiac signs began with Virgo at the head of the Sphinx and with Leo behind its head and progressed eastward and westward, respectively. They also viewed the zodiac signs as progressing northward from the left mid-section of the Sphinx and southward from its right mid-section, beginning with Aquarius and with Pisces, respectively. In each case, the progression of the zodiac signs followed the natural sequence of the zodiac. Under the present day system, the houses or zodiac boundaries of Earth vary with the several different versions in use, one of these being the ancient Egyptian system which has been greatly modified from the original.
Therefore, a principal object of the present invention is the provision of a board game conceptually related to the horoscopes which the ancient astrologers of Babylon and of Egypt erected based on their limited understanding of the universe, whereby students of astrology may gain an insight into the origins of their art while at the same time amusing themselves with a game of chance and skill.